Category: 3. Business

Oil and gas prices have risen again after Iran carried out attacks on production facilities for the first time since the start of the war with the US and Israel.

Brent crude, the international benchmark oil price, climbed 3% to $103.2 (£77.52) a barrel on Tuesday and was up nearly 50% from levels before the war began on 28 February. Wholesale gas prices rose nearly 3% to €52 (£45) a megawatt hour, compared with about €30 before the war.

For the first time, Iran successfully targeted oil and gas production facilities, rather than just refineries, terminals and storage.

The United Arab Emirates said a drone struck the Shah natural gasfield – one of the largest in the world – on Monday and set it on fire. Operations remained suspended on Tuesday while officials assessed the damage.

An oilfield in Iraq, Majnoon, and the UAE’s biggest port and oil storage facility, Fujairah, were also hit by Iranian drones and missiles as the war entered its third week.

A tanker was hit by an unknown projectile off the port of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman. The attack caused a fire in the port, a vital export terminal where oil loading by the state company Adnoc has been halted. When operating normally, Fujairah is the outlet for more than 1m barrels of oil a day.

The disruptions threaten to completely cut off the UAE’s remaining crude export outlet from global markets as the Middle East crisis deepens. Daily crude oil output from the UAE, the third biggest producer within the Opec cartel, has more than halved since the conflict started.

The UAE’s other export hubs are located within the Gulf, which has in effect been cut off from the world by Iran’s stranglehold of the strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and a fifth of gas supplies pass in normal times.

Gulf Arab states, including the UAE, have faced more than 2,000 missile and drone attacks since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, targeting US diplomatic missions and military bases as well as oil infrastructure, ports, airports and residential and commercial buildings.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, denied a report that he had been in contact with Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The price of Brent crude remains well below the peak of $119.50 a barrel hit during the war.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said the largest oil market shock on record would have a bigger impact on products such as jet fuel and diesel than on crude.

“Prices have rallied much more for many refined products than for crude,” the analysts Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby and Daan Struyven said in a note, according to Bloomberg. The severe disruptions seen in supplies of medium-heavy crude put the production of diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil at risk.

Saul Kavonic, the head of energy research at the Sydney-based research firm MST Marquee, said: “Mixed messages are coming from the Trump administration on the war’s duration, as the market focuses more on the actions on the ground that remain escalatory.”

Blackouts have increased in Asian countries alongside a shift to coal, as most of the oil and gas flowing through the strait of Hormuz normally goes to Asia.

Sri Lanka declared every Wednesday a holiday for public institutions to conserve fuel. “We must prepare for the worst but hope for the best,” the president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said at an emergency meeting with senior officials on Monday.

Bangladesh has brought forward Ramadan holidays in universities and introduced planned blackouts across the nation to conserve energy. In Thailand, the government has asked civil servants to wear short-sleeved shirts rather than suits to reduce reliance on air conditioning, and to take the stairs instead of lifts.

Uniqlo has emerged as the most considered fashion retail brand in Singapore, while also topping rankings for perceived quality and value, according to new consumer data on leading fashion retailers in the market.

The rankings show Uniqlo leading the consideration rankings with a score of 50, well ahead of global sportswear brands Nike (27.5) and adidas (26.0). The Japanese retailer also secures the top position for quality (47.6) and value (46.0), highlighting its strong reputation among Singaporean shoppers.

Uniqlo Dominates Consumer Consideration

Uniqlo stands significantly ahead of competitors in consumer consideration, which measures whether a consumer would consider purchasing from a brand when next in market, reinforcing its strong brand presence in Singapore’s fashion market.

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SIAC registered (5MB//21-page PDF) 886 new cases in 2025, the vast majority of which were international in nature. This is the second highest caseload in SIAC’s history and an increase from 625 cases in 2024.

The total amount in dispute climbed to US$14.53 billion, the highest in SIAC’s history and well above the US$11.86bn recorded in 2024. The institution said the figures reflect substantial growth in both administered and ad hoc filings, alongside rising demand for arbitration services in cross-border disputes.

SIAC served an increasingly global user base in 2025, with cases involving parties from a record 79 jurisdictions, compared to 72 last year. 

India again ranked as SIAC’s third largest foreign user, a position it has held in both 2024 and 2025, alongside Mainland China. 
Mohan Pillay, a full-time arbitrator and expert in international arbitration at Pinsent Masons MPillay, said: “It is evident that SIAC continues to retain its appeal as a highly valued disputes hub for Indian parties.”

“This reflects SIAC’s deep and broad institutional footprint in India, with a 2025 calendar that included India ADR week, the Delhi arbitration weekend, SIAC India Academy training, and multiple conferences featuring judges and leaders from major Indian institutions,” he said.

“Indian law was the third most frequently applied governing law in SIAC cases last year, behind Singapore and English law, Indian arbitrators were the third most appointed, and the SIAC Court has four members from India. These statistics underscore India’s strategic role within the institution.”

Wee Jian Ang, an international arbitration expert at Pinsent Masons MPillay, said “the first year of SIAC Rules 2025 gave early insights into the popularity of its newly introduced procedures and mechanisms and how they work in practice”.

“SIAC received four applications for the new protective preliminary order (PPO) mechanism, with one granted and the remaining three heard before an emergency arbitrator following party notification,” he said.

“The streamlined procedure saw significant uptake with 60 cases. The preliminary determination process was invoked four times, with tribunals allowing three to proceed and eventually granting two.”

Complex multi-contract disputes also continued to drive consolidation requests. SIAC oversaw 107 consolidation applications in 2025, its highest ever, with 66 being granted, up from 64 out of 101 in 2024. SIAC said the trend reflects user demand for cost efficient case management amid increasingly interconnected commercial arrangements.

The recent regulatory changes in Mexico require that companies immediately strengthen their internal controls and documentation processes. Priority areas of attention include: (i) the integration of materiality files for tax and foreign trade operations, (ii) the review of anti-money laundering policies and monitoring mechanisms and (iii) the preparation of protocols to respond to labor inspections regarding subcontracting. Companies that do not act in a timely manner face risks of intensified audits, suspension of operations and impacts to their operational continuity.

In recent months, various provisions have come into force that modify the compliance standard expected of companies in Mexico. Now more than ever, management teams need to ensure that their legal and compliance departments are aware of these changes and take the appropriate measures.

1. Tax Matters

a) Audits to review CFDI’s considered invalid

In recent years, various modifications have been approved, as well as judicial criteria issued that transform the way in which companies must document their operations. The issuance of the CFDI for the operations carried out by the company will not be sufficient by itself to prove the actual existence of the operation.

In 2026, there is already a new type of domiciliary visit, with the purpose of verifying that the CFDIs support existing, true operations or real legal acts, when the authority presumes that such receipts were issued illegally. Thus, the risk requires undertaking preventive actions to address possible challenges. It is essential that taxpayers implement policies for the preservation and integration of materiality files for each operation and keep, in a complete and rigorous manner, all documents and information that effectively support their operations at their tax domicile.

It is essential that taxpayers implement policies for the conservation and integration of the materiality files of each operation, and that they preserve all the documents and information that effectively prove their operations in their tax domicile.

b) Audit programming and guidelines

Recently, new audit programming criteria were announced, marking a clear focus on risk analysis to identify companies with inconsistencies, atypical operations or signs of simulation. This means that audits will be more precise and faster. Companies that do not have solid compliance processes will be exposed to these types of programs. Companies that do not strengthen their internal controls, do not integrate materiality files and do not review the consistency of their information run the risk of being classified as high-risk taxpayers and therefore potential subjects of audit processes.

c) Guarantees for contested tax credits

In 2026, the possibility of avoiding the guarantee of the tax credit when filing an appeal for revocation is eliminated. In addition, the regulation of the means of guarantee and their priority is substantially modified, forcing taxpayers in practice to immobilize resources from the beginning of the challenge. The new scheme requires first that the guarantee be granted through a deposit certificate.

This means that taxpayers will have to freeze their own resources during the time the litigation lasts and until the means of defense is definitively resolved. Added to this is the reform to the Amparo Law, through which it is provided that the granting of the suspension will be discretionary and only when guaranteed with a deposit certificate or letter of credit. Any tax contingency not addressed in a timely manner can become a financial problem for any company

d) Tax incentive/regularization

The new tax incentive in force in 2026 constitutes an opportunity for companies to seek to regularize tax contingencies without the need to enter into more costly contentious procedures. Thus, regularizing now not only represents a reduction of these credits or debts, but also strengthens the company’s position before an authority that will operate with stricter risk criteria.

2. Import and Exports

The authority requires that the importer or exporter prove the materiality and traceability of operations, and must have an electronic file for each operation, which must contain, among others: a purchase-sale contract (not simply purchase orders), proof of payment and a list of employees with payroll CFDI. In practice, much of this documentation does not exist at the time of dispatch or is constantly modified due to the dynamism and complexity of operations.

This involves an additional administrative burden for importers and exporters, as well as the risk of not having robust files to support each operation. Companies that do not strengthen their internal processes, do not integrate complete files and do not ensure the traceability of their operations, will be exposed to contingencies that may affect inventories, cash flow and operational continuity

3. Anti-Money Laundering

The reforms to the Anti-Money Laundering Law include: (i) the expansion of the concept of beneficial owner and greater control in its identification, (ii) the obligation to have automated mechanisms for permanent monitoring of operations, internal personnel selection procedures and training, and (iii) the obligation to carry out annual internal or external audits that certify compliance with obligations.

The authority will have powers to temporarily suspend acts or operations when it detects noncompliance, which can paralyze essential activities and generate operational and reputational damage that is difficult to reverse. Anti-money laundering compliance now corresponds to a critical component of operational continuity. Companies that do not prepare will face risks that can directly affect their operational and compliance capacity.

4. Labor: Inspection Protocol Regarding Subcontracting

The authorities published a protocol in which they develop the points to consider and review in: (i) verification visits to the work centers of those who request their registration or are registered in the REPSE (ii) inspections at the work centers of contractors, beneficiaries and at any work center where specialized services are provided or a placement of workers takes place and (iii) ordinary and extraordinary inspections regarding general working conditions, safety and hygiene and training.

Given the described panorama, we recommend scheduling a diagnostic session to evaluate the current state of your internal controls and identify priority compliance actions. We remain at your entire disposal for any questions or in case you require more detailed advice regarding any of the above points.

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